Jon Mitchell and Lynnee Argabright have withdrawn from the Chapel Hill Town Council and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board elections, respectively.
The pair of withdrawals turns this already sleepy Orange County election cycle into a bit of a municipal snoozefest—five candidates are campaigning for four town council seats, and just three candidates are seeking three school board seats.
“I’m deeply grateful for the encouragement I received, but after weighing both the competitive dynamic of the race (five other highly electable candidates) and what I could realistically accomplish if elected (less than I’d like), I decided the opportunity cost of missing essentially two months of family life was too high,” Mitchell said in an email to INDY.
“I applaud the other candidates for their willingness to serve and wish them well. I’ll continue my work on the Planning Commission, as a board member of Shift Chapel Hill-Carrboro, and through my Substack newsletters.”
Argabright could not be reached for comment, but voiced similar sentiments about the high demands of a campaign at a candidate forum last month that she attended as a spectator.
The news means that the CHCCS board will not see any major shakeups—incumbents George Griffin and Riza Jenkins will hold their seats for four more years, while Melinda Manning will take the seat left vacant by Michael Sharp, who declined to run again.
Manning, noting the recent budget difficulties at CHCCS, is running on a platform of “radical transparency” as the board tries to maintain the district’s shining reputation despite local, state, and federal budget troubles.
The pair of withdrawals leave Chapel Hill’s town council election as the only truly competitive race in Orange County, and it’s still less than a barnburner. Of the four seats up for grabs, two are currently held by incumbents Camille Berry and Paris Miller-Foushee, who will both enjoy some name recognition advantage over challengers Wes McMahon, Louie Rivers III, and Erik Valera. Read more about the candidates here.
No matter who wins, the council of the progressive town is going to have to continue to figure out how to do more with less as costs continue to rise and the federal government becomes less interested in helping people.
“Social service needs and the needs for folks who are struggling are just going to go up,” Mayor Jess Anderson told INDY this summer after a particularly contentious budget vote. “We’re left holding the bag.”
Anderson is running unopposed for another two-year term, as the pirate portrayer motivated to run by a town bus crash made noises about challenging Anderson but never filed.
In Carrboro, mayor Barbara Foushee is facing only one challenger, Joe H. Lloyd Jr., who is a registered Republican bravely seeking election in a town where Harris won as much as 85 percent of the vote in some neighborhoods.
And the three seats for Carrboro town council attracted, you guessed it, three candidates.
The low number of candidates seems a bit incongruous with the highly educated, generally well-engaged towns of Orange County. Everyone on Reddit apparently has an opinion about how to improve the towns and the schools. But few, it seems, have the time, money, or energy to run for office.
Early voting begins October 16.
Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].